While the United Nations named 2008 the International Year of Planet Earth, the status of the world's most vulnerable citizens remains precarious in many countries, and filmmaker Ferenc Moldoványi turns his camera on the lives of a handful of children who face poverty, danger and crime on a daily basis in this documentary. Another Planet was shot in Cambodia, Ecuador, Mexico and the Congo and profiles several youngsters struggling to survive in some of the poorest parts of the world, as they labor in factories, as street peddlers, as soldiers or as sex workers. While the film is a shocking expose of the exploitation of children in the Third World, Another Planet also offers glimpses of other kids who lead purer and unspoiled lives as well as letting the youngsters speak for themselves about the good and the bad in their lives. Another Planet received its North American premiere at the 2008 Montreal World Film Festival.
by Mark Deming
synopsis
